The intersection of the political and scientific worlds was the most challenging part of being US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Stephen Hahn told the Pink Sheet in a rare acknowledgement of the heightened scrutiny he faced to keep the agency’s science and evidence-based mission and reputation on course amid intense public concern it was being compromised by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In public during his time leading the agency, Hahn often strove to emphasize FDA’s separation from political influence, saying that career scientists would call the “the balls and strikes.” But after leaving office in January 2021, he began to describe the potential benefits to an agency that was more clearly divorced from political interference, suggesting in March that the FDA commissioners have a fixed term that would be “outside of the political schedule